pmackellow

Mmmmm... 

Blimey, never seen you two old boys work so fast !! 
 
What's the plans for it then ??

Yes I like Cub Cadets (as well as the horses with wheels), they do seem very solidly built, here's the ones in our collection...
 
81. 100 and 128
 
 

Chris, I think you are just laying a smokescreen to cover the fact you have more LF tractors than anyone else on this forum I know someone who has a FEL on a LF and you just would not believe how much he had to pay for the tractor and loader.
 
 
 
By coincidence I have a Bolens UK price list from Jan 1980 and I quickly took a picture of the LF page. This may help to answer the HDT1000 question because the only LF's for sale in the UK at that time were the HT22 and HT23.
 
Using an online historic price calculator an HT23 would cost £13,708 and a HT22 £16,140 before taxes at today's prices. I guess the nearest comparator today is a John Deere 1000 series and you could buy 1 and a half of those for the price of a Bolens. I didn't check for an online historic currency convertor but if one exists it would highlight the difference in costs in the UK compared with the US.
 

 
As you mentioned, they were best of the best in the day. It is a shame that Bolens decided to reduce the quality in order to try to compete on price with manufacturers of less capable equipment.
 
Iain

Jan/Feb issue arrived today, looks like a good read...

OK thanks my copy should be here soon !!

Nice collection

Another push along we acquired a few years ago. Plan was to tow it behind child no 3's tractor.
Once we took it apart it was a basket case, the whole gearbox was seized
I had to chop the plastic in half to split it, so a new boss had to be made.

Then new hubs, to replace the rubbish plastic wheels it had. This allowed sack cart wheels to be added.


I think we might adapt it to tow later...

Top job Mark that will look good behind a horse

Hi Iain, it will have a split brake pedal, but split front/back rather than sides on the rear...
 
 
 
 
Thanks James, it's getting not as fast as I would like, but any progress is good progress..
 
 
Even though I have not posted anything about Why Not for a few weeks work has slowly been happening..
 
When I left off at the end of the last update I had just started making new wheel centers.. Like so
 

 
 
Which eventually turned into this...
 

 

 
 
The raised bit is a nice tight fit in the center of the wheel which means the new wheel center is centralized in the center of the wheel
 

 
 
And from the outside it looks like this.. Please note the widened wheel rim was used for photographic purposes only and won't be going on Why Not..
 

 
 
Bolt holes drilled... The extra two holes were the result of me making a jig out of ally to drill the holes accurately....  The trouble with ally is it's rather soft to use as a jig and one of the new holes ended up a couple of mm's in the wrong place!
 

 
 
Time to break out the welder.. Lot's of tacks to stop it moving with heat..
 

 
 
Fully welded in..   A mixture of neat strong welds and not quite so neat but still strong welds
 

 
 
The blackish ring seen on the inside shows good heat penetration.. 
 

 
 
Next up was to remove the old wheel center...
 

 
 
Once it was cleaned up you could see the join between the new wheel center and the old metal, so I carefully ground out a V along the join and....
 

 
 
Back filled the V with plenty of weld
 

 
 
With the welds and the raised center carefully ground down to make it all smooth and level..
 

 
 
I could finally bolt a Wheel Horse wheel to a Reliant rear axle
 

 

Thanks mate though I'm not sure about a seasonal special, I'm even more "ba-humbug" than Nigel
 
 
Duels anyone?
 

 
 
Maybe not... A bit too much
 

 
 
Progress has been made although it's hard to tell from the next photo.. The axle has been put back together, diff and half shafts installed.. The axle can now be unbolted from the chassis, and the axle mounting place on the chassis has had some reinforcing..
I really need to take some photos!
 

 
 
One thing I always pride myself on is doing everything "In house" or even "In workshop", partly because it's nice to be able to say "I made that", and partly because I'd rather spend time making something than part with money
So with that in mind yesterday I finally came up with an accurate and safe and strong way I could convert a Wh rear wheel with it's 5 bolt 4 1/2" PCD..
 

 
 
To fit the Reliant's 4 bolt 4" PCD
 

 
 
I found this nice length of thick plate hiding on the bottom of a shelf in Nigel's "Handy scrap metal" store.. (Thanks Nigel ) which is enough to make 2 wheel centers from.
 

 
 
Let the lathe work start
 

 
 
The bad news is this steel is rather hard so it's going to take quite a while to turn each wheel center!

The tribe minus me and eldest's hubby.
 

 
The girl third from left wearing hat is nothing to do with me. Keeps turning up every Christmas.
 
 

this is another one i have had sitting around for 4 years or so its a 1963 huffy broadlawn got it running today
 

So am I, two weeks in Yorkshire... bliss !!

A dozen or so gathered today at the Plough and Horses pub in Crowborough for the Sussex area Xmas Lunch
 
A great lunch was followed by a cuppa and a natter at ours plus a look round my sheds, a good afternoon, thanks to those who turned up
 
I also picked up a new machine from Phil Murrell, a Ransomes Cyclone mower  looking in the brochure collection I found the right one for it.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Here's a cool little cable winch that made it's way into my collection. 
I usually like to keep them original but this one will probably end up getting a new paint job.
It's kind of heavy and awkward to carry but can't find any where a handle would have been either.

Here's a couple of photos of mine taken just now, parked in the stable with her stable mates...
 
 

Well I did offer a home for that old Cub Cadet...

I'm sure I read on the old forum that the compressor was one of the rarer O&R tools.
 
David

That's quite a collection Paul

I got all of my O&R powered machines in one place this afternoon, there's the Tarpen rotavator unit, the Turbair sprayer,
half an Orline compressor set (anyone got a suitable compressor ??), the Champ generator and the 3/4hp engine that
arrived the other day...
 
 

Sorry to hear about your mum Neil, fingers crossed for you mate, hope you and your family have a good Christmas and New Year

Here's my half a compressor set !!
 
 

I got all of my O&R powered machines in one place this afternoon, there's the Tarpen rotavator unit, the Turbair sprayer,
half an Orline compressor set (anyone got a suitable compressor ??), the Champ generator and the 3/4hp engine that
arrived the other day...